Energy Independence Starts at Home

Jeff Orr, who manages an Amish building company, and Jayne Siersdorfer hope their home will be a prototype for green building.

The house frame is pre-cut before it reaches the job site and will be assembled in just a few hours.

The Amish crew works together to get the job done quickly. The home uses thick pink insulation in the walls, ceilings and even around the base of the foundation.

RIGHT: The unique home requires some unique-looking tools.

It takes a lot of man power to move the large beams into position.

When Jeff Orr wanted to learn about building an energy efficient home for his retirement, he started with the magazine rack at his local bookstore.

“They had four magazines on tattooing, two on how to braid your hair and a sundry of other magazines,” said the manager of a small Amish construction company in Wayne County.

Noticeably absent was anything that offered serious steps he could take to lessen his reliance on energy.

If the contents of that magazine rack were a reflection of what’s on America’s mind, then Orr was worried.

Sure, there were occasional articles on weatherproofing or switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs, but “they are like Band-Aids on a buzz saw cut,” Orr said.

The problem, as he sees it, is the continued demand for homes that are large, but not necessarily well-built or that include efficient technology. With homeowners typically locked into a mortgage for 30 years, he’s concerned how affordable it will be to heat and cool several thousand square feet of living space in the future.

“People are going to be forced to make changes,” he said. Instead of focusing on size, “what they should say is we built a house that can be heated with a candle and cooled with an ice cube.”

But the more he researched “green” homes, which emphasize sustainable building techniques, the more he found out he was a pioneer, especially when it comes to Ohio’s climate.

So with his old-fashioned, rural Ohio mindset, he decided he’d do it himself.

“We had to reverse engineer everything,” he said of the prototype home he is building outside of Doylestown. That means heating and cooling features are being built too big for what he thinks he’ll need. After a few seasons, he can scale down to what is most effective.

The home’s main heat source is a gasification boiler, which captures a superheated, highly-efficient gas produced by burning wood. Instead of forced air, plastic tubes carry hot water under the floor to radiate heat throughout the house. The tap water will be heated by solar panels. The roof and walls were built deeper to allow for an extra thick layer of airtight insulation.

It’s a bigger investment up front, but Orr has calculated that on a zero degree night, with a 20 mph wind, it will take about half as much energy to heat his home as is produced by a charcoal grill.

Energy efficiency, however, is only one aspect of green building. Much of the home’s structure was built from renewable Ohio timber. The metal roof will last at least 80 years. The home also incorporates recycled materials; insulation in the basement floor, for example, was reclaimed from the flat rooftops of commercial buildings.

“We’re not building a disposable home,” said Jayne Siersdorfer, who will share the home with Orr. The house is made to last at least 100 years, reducing the amount of material that ends up in the landfill.

In addition, almost everything in the home is built by Ohio companies, some of which have their own green techniques. For instance, an Amish shop that is building the doors uses soy-based adhesives and panels made out of wheat. In the end, money stays in the community and less fuel is burnt driving trucks across the country.

Once completed, Orr will use his home as a showplace for the potential of green building. Ultimately, he hopes the region can revitalize its economy as part of the answer to what he believes is a looming energy crisis.

“We have the technology and manufacturing in northeast Ohio to help Ohioans solve their problems,” he said.

Ohio Farm Bureau Federation is a member of American Farm Bureau Federation®, a national organization of farmers and ranchers including Farm Bureau® organizations in 49 other states and Puerto Rico, and is responsible for Farm Bureau membership and programs within the State of Ohio. Ohio Farm Bureau Federation programs and services are available only to Farm Bureau members within Ohio. The political views expressed in these pages represent Ohio Farm Bureau Federation's positions on various issues as they relate to Ohio. The positions of the national Farm Bureau organization collectively are expressed through American Farm Bureau Federation. Any opinions, statements or views expressed through comments or by outside contributors are the express views of those individuals and do not necessarily represent the views of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.